Photography with drones in an immersive view

- Hi, this week on The Practicing Photographer,I'll be feeling ridiculous.I think I'm going to, and it's,honestly it's only going to get worse.I though maybe having these cool high-tech goggles onwould actually make me look, I don't know, cooler somehow,and it's, I just don't think that's going to happen.But I'm wearing them anyway because they dodo something really fantasticif you are interested in still photography from a drone.I have a drone right over here.This is the Phantom 4,which is equipped with an excellent wide-angle camerathat is actually able to shoot RAW.I really like shooting with this thing.

Of course it can also do video and a lot of people doa lot of great video work with drones.I'm more of a still shooterso I tend to use it more for stills.I find drone photography a lot to be like macro photography.You can see something that you thinkis potentially good subject matterbut it's just really difficult to pre-visualizewhat you might get.One of the great things about this system isit uses your smartphone as a viewfinder.So right out of the box,you've got a full first-person view capabilitywith this drone so it's really easy to seewhat you're shooting, frame up shots,and so on and so forth.

With a third-party piece of software though,you can go an extra step and get really immersiveby adding a pair of really dorky-lookingbut not-that-expensive goggles.That's what these are.These are about $50 bucks off of Amazon.As you may have guessed, my phone is in here right now.This is just like a Google Cardboardor any other smartphone-based VR headset.So my phone is sitting in hereand it's running a piece of software called Litchi.This is a piece of software designed for the iPhoneto work specifically with certain dronesincluding the Phantom 4.

Does a lot of thingsand over a couple different installmentsof The Practicing Photographer,we're going to look at what it can do.Today, we're particularly interested in the VR viewthat works with the headset and more specifically,with it's ability to do head-trackingfor controlling the gimbal.So I'm going to put the drone up in the airand then I'm going to put the goggles onand I've got it set up right nowso what I'm seeing in the goggles is actually afully immersive view,but I've got it set for gimbal-trackingwhich means as I move my head around,the gimbal will go up and down.

What's great about this,is it means that I can fly with my handsand just look around and steer,it can't entirely steer the drone in this modebut I can at least move the gimbal up and down.So let's put the drone up in the air here.This doesn't change anything about the way that I fly.I'm starting by flying up.That's probably enoughand now I'm deploying the goggles so very exciting.Oh my!And so here I am up in the airand as I'm moving my head up and down,the gimbal is moving up and downand what I find is,this allows me to think one less thingabout flying the drone.

I'm not having to steer the gimbal,which is something that I would normally do with my hands.Instead, I can just fly the drone around and look around.And as I'm looking around,I can see if there are any shots that I want.And there's just something abouttaking one less part of the process out ofmy hands and out of some kind of technicalor theoretical realm and just putting it into my body,something about doing that lets me thinka little bit more about the shooting.

Now, we're rolling video on the drone right nowso I can't actually take any stills while we're doing this,so I'm just having a nice look around.Now, what's cool is I can also switch this into another modeand that is to make it so I steer the dronewith my headso in that mode, as I turn my head,the drone actually steers and again,that's just another thing that I can takeout of the realm of my handsand out of the realm of this controllerand just put into my bodyand I find that the ability to do thatis allowing me to think more,or feel more about the shooting.

It's one less distraction, it's more about just image.And that's, I'm finding it's a much nicer way to shoot.So if you've got a compatible drone,you're going to want to check out Litchiand if you are interested in it,you're going to want to get a pair of goggles that works with it.It's a,it's a really nice immersive wayto take still photographs from the air.

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Author

Updated

11/15/2018

Released

5/19/2013

In The Practicing Photographer, photographer and teacher Ben Long shares a weekly serving of photographic instruction and inspiration. Each installment focuses on a photographic shooting scenario, a piece of gear, or a software technique. Each one concludes with a call to action designed to inspire you to pick up your camera (or your mouse or smartphone) to try the technique for yourself.

Skill Level Beginner

31h 44m

Duration

2,357,512

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A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.